Hit Comics Vol 1 12
Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * Carpis ** Carpis' gang (at least fifteen gunmen) Other Characters: * two Park Rangers Locations: * ** Old Faithful Geyser ** Yellowstone Canyon ** Hot Springs ** "Old Death Cavern" Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer2_1 = Bob Powell | Penciler2_1 = Al Bryant | Inker2_1 = Al Bryant | StoryTitle2 = Betty Bates: "One Hamburger With Trouble" | Synopsis2 = Betty Bates is present when a gang of well-fed thugs walks brazenly out of her favorite cafe without paying. Ted the counter man steps out and yells a them about it, so they jeer and throw big rocks at the diner, breaking many windows. Betty is ready to take this mess to court, but Ted is way too scared to go along with that. Betty tells him her plan... Several days later Betty bangs on the door of a decrepit tenement apartment, and it turns out to be the hideout of the rude punks from the diner. Betty would like their help, you see, she's got this "petition", which she hands each of them, and which turn out to be subpoenas. Betty leaves before these dolts can gather their wits, and when they call their boss (Mike Renella) to tell on themselves, he doesn't take it well. While he's scolding his mugs, Betty shows up, amid the noise of shooting, and clambers right into his house by way of the window; she's faking a chase scene for Renella's benefit. For the second time that day she applies her feminine wiles, but this time Mike's very jealous girlfriend is watching, and she warns Renella when Bates slips a subpoena into his pocket. Mike grabs Betty but Betty provokes the girlfriend into fighting with Renella, and that's all the distraction she needs to slip back out thru the window. Betty goes to Ted's Diner, and Ted is very worried, and very soon two cars full of killers arrive. They march right in thru the front door; it's a trap. Betty is there with her handgun, and so are at least five cops. There is a melee, with the thugs doing very poorly, and at the end of it they're all on their way to jail. One week later, they've been sentenced to ten years in the state penitentiary, and they're all on their way to prison. | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * Mike Renella ** his gang: Joe, Moe, at least three others ** Mike's jealous girlfriend Other Characters: * Ted, short-order cook Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer3_1 = Jack Cole | Penciler3_1 = Jack Cole | Inker3_1 = Jack Cole | StoryTitle3 = Dan Tootin: "An Odorless Perfume" | Synopsis3 = Dan Tootin, the Madcap Chemist, invents an odorless perfume. | Appearing3 = Featured Characters: * | Writer4_1 = Jerry Iger | Penciler4_1 = Alex Blum | Inker4_1 = Alex Blum | StoryTitle4 = Strange Twins: "The Medical Supply Smugglers" | Synopsis4 = Douglas and Rodney Strange, and Wing Low, are crossing the Pacific Ocean, bound for the U.S., aboard an ocean liner. Doug gets lured into an ambush and jumped on by two thugs, then thrown into a cabin and locked up. When Doug goes missing, Rod impersonates him, and learns from the ship's captain that a gang of smugglers is working in this area, selling stolen medical supplies to the enemy. From some circumstantial clues in this situation, Rod figures that the ship's radioman is in on the racket, and he collars him. Rod beats some clues out of this weasel, but knows he's not getting the whole story. The crew searches the entire ship without finding Doug, but when the ship arrives at Honolulu, and cargo is unloaded, Rodney Strange sees an object fall free from one bale of cotton, and that object turns out to be Doug Strange's watch. Rod and Wing Low watch as that particular bale is loaded onto a truck, and when the truck leaves the pier they stow away aboard it. It takes them to a hut, hidden behind a grove, deep within a pineapple plantation. The bad guys unload the cotton, and they already know which bale has Inspector Strange inside it. While the villain boss is paying off the freight crew, back at the truck Wing Low and Rod Strange have started a melee. They take out all of the thugs outside of the main house, then proceed inside. Doug is just about to get shot dead when they bring mayhem into the room, there is a fracas of mostly-pure fisticuffs, at the end of which a large number of thugs have been beaten down very severely, and rolled up into bales of heavy cotton. | Appearing4 = Featured Characters: * * Supporting Characters: * Wing Low Antagonists: * smuggler gang ** radioman Other Characters: * Locations: * ** *** Items: * Vehicles: * passenger steamship | Writer5_1 = | Penciler5_1 = Henry Kiefer | Inker5_1 = Henry Kiefer | StoryTitle5 = Lion Boy: "Lion Boy Is in Love" | Synopsis5 = Two vengeful ex-convicts come to the area, looking to murder Jim, the District Commissioner. He knows they're around, and goes out hunting them, despite the dramatic misgivings of his girlfriend Mary. Lion Boy vows to watch over Jim, and sprints off into the veldt to do so. Out in the wild, he teams up with his old lion pal Sambar, and more than once they keep Jim from getting killed, by wild animals AND by the bad guys. Eventually Lion Boy and Sambar manage to capture Otto and his partner alive, and they get turned over to the local Native Constabulary. | Appearing5 = Featured Characters: * Animals: * Sambar, Lion Boy's friend Supporting Characters: * Mary Graham, teacher at a nearby settlement Antagonists: * Otto, ex-convict * Otto's partner, ex-convict Other Characters: * Jim, District Commissioner, Mary's boyfriend * local Native Constabulary, Jim's troops Locations: * Items: * | Writer6_1 = Klaus Nordling | Penciler6_1 = Klaus Nordling | Inker6_1 = Klaus Nordling | StoryTitle6 = Bob & Swab: "Baron Revals" | Synopsis6 = Even with both of them in the brig, the squabbling and fistfighting between Bob and Swab is too noisy to endure, so the C.O. furloughs these problem children. But the joke's on them, the Scarab is moored at an under-construction U.S. base, with no night life whatsoever. They of course get into trouble anyway, running into a local plantation-owner, seemingly also a slave-holder, who also has some evil plans for releasing poisonous snakes onto the island, and leaving, right after the base gets built. The planter, "Baron Revals", tries to kill the boys, but they turn the tables on him, burn down his plantation, and knock out all of his crew of saboteurs. | Appearing6 = Featured Characters: * * Supporting Characters: * Scarab's Commanding Officer Antagonists: * Baron Revals ** his plantation staff ** his crew of saboteurs Other Characters: * Locations: * ** "in the Bermudas" *** new U.S. base Items: * Vehicles: * USS Scarab, battleship | Writer7_1 = Toni Blum | Penciler7_1 = Witmer Williams | Inker7_1 = Witmer Williams | StoryTitle7 = the Red Bee: "Grotoff's Underground Underworld" | Synopsis7 = From his hidden base underneath the Chanler Building, Feodor Grotoff runs many of the rackets on the Eastern Seaboard, and controls a number of corrupt politicians. He lures Rick Raleigh's boss, D.A. Hawkes into a trap, and sends an impersonator to replace him. The Red Bee investigates, rescues Hawkes, beats up a large number of thugs, and takes down Grotoff. | Appearing7 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Mr. Hawkes, District Attorney * Michael, the Red Bee's bee Antagonists: * Feodor Grotoff ** Grotoff's gang Locations: * , ** Chanler Building | Writer9_1 = Jerry Iger | Penciler9_1 = Alex Blum | Inker9_1 = Alex Blum | StoryTitle9 = Neon the Unknown: "The Secret Pact" | Synopsis9 = In the small Balkan nation of Slovia, Neon learns that the Premier, Tchebitsky, has entered into a secret pact with the neighboring nation's dictator, Otto Shickler. Neon flies to the capital of Parda, where Tchebitsky, on a balcony, is addressing a crowd in the public square. He publicly accuses Tchebitsky of treason, and shrugs off a hail of bullets from Tchebitsky's snipers. He gives Tchebitsky the choice of confessing or dying on the spot; Tchebitsky gloats that it's too late to stop Shickler's forces, gathered at the North Pass, because the Slovian Army has been dispatched to the south. A riot erupts; enraged Slovians scale the wall towards the balcony; snipers and other palace guards open fire on them, but Neon uses his strange Neonic Powers to stop the bullets. He then rallies the gathered crowd into an impromptu militia; they gather some weapons and march briskly to the North Pass. At a border checkpoint, the invading army encounters unexpected resistance, and loses at least one officer, then prepares to open fire with tanks. Neon appears and rips apart one tank with his mysterious power. Some infantrymen fix bayonets and charge at Neon but their weapons are completely useless against Neon's rays. A two-engined warplane swoops in to strafe Neon but he shears off both of its wings before it can do any damage, and it crashes. The invading troops flee in terror, and the Slovian defenders arrive. Neon exhorts them to elect a democratic government that will let the people know its acts. | Appearing9 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Stefan, Slovian freedom fighter spymaster * unnamed Slovian freedom fighter spy Antagonists: * Otto Shickler * Tchebitsky, Premier of Slovia Other Characters: * Slovian soldiers * aggressor nation soldiers Locations: * , a small Balkan nation ** Parda, its capital ** North Pass | Writer10_1 = | Penciler10_1 = Maurice Gutwirth | Inker10_1 = Maurice Gutwirth | StoryTitle10 = Blaze Barton: "Dark Side of the Moon" | Synopsis10 = Blaze Barton and his girlfriend Pat visit the Moon. After several hours of steady rocketing, they land on the dark side. No animal life is evident, but the vegetation is very dangerous: some of it shoots "arrows" and some has grabby tentacle-vines. Blaze and Pat get separated and Blaze has to fight his way back to her. Some of the plants are mobile, and manage to ensnare both Pat and Blaze, then to fling them into a big lake. There are more man-eating weeds in the lake, which is pretty deep. They get together and get back to their rocket, and soon return to Earth. | Appearing10 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Pat * Professor Antagonists: * Other Characters: * Locations: * ** Dark Side *** a lake, amid a forest Items: * Vehicles: * space rocket | Writer11_1 = | Penciler11_1 = George Appel | Inker11_1 = George Appel | StoryTitle11 = G-5 Super Agent: "Assignment:Paris" | Synopsis11 = G-5 is in Paris, where he first infiltrates, then teams up with, a gang of resistance fighters. Together they kill a number of Nazi infantrymen, then G-5 helps the group escape by air to Switzerland, while he stays behind. | Appearing11 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * Other Characters: * Resistance fighters Locations: * Items: * Vehicles: * cargo airplane | Writer12_1 = | Penciler12_1 = George Appel | Inker12_1 = George Appel | StoryTitle12 = Old Witch: "The Phantom Peacemakers" | Synopsis12 = The Old Witch tells a strange tale of two ghostly peacemakers in early America, and ends with a stern moral: "There can always be peace .. if men put their minds to it!" | Appearing12 = Featured Narrator: * Supporting Characters: * Antagonists: * Jonathan Other Characters: * Pilgrim settlers * Indians Locations: * Plymouth settlement, 1621 Items: * Vehicles: * | Writer13_1 = | Penciler13_1 = Al Bryant | Inker13_1 = Al Bryant | StoryTitle13 = Don Glory: "Sabotage At Acme Aircraft" | Synopsis13 = Don Glory's fiancee's brother disappears, at Acme Aircraft. John Brent was a secret Government Inspector. Don gets a job at Acme, to get access to the factory where that happened. Saboteurs are working in the factory, and they spot him before he spots them. One of them sets Don up to look like the culprit when a dangerous chemical fire breaks out. Two security guards try to escort Don to the Superintendent's office; he shoves them both into a closet and locks it. After a quick, violent confrontation with his two accusers, Don knocks their heads together and drags them out of the factory. A guard shoots both of the accusers, one dies, but Don keeps going with the other one, packs him into his roadster, and drives away. This guy, Hal Danton, is badly shot up, but Don has some urgent questions for him, so he parks on a side road. Danton confesses to everything, in writing, and signs it, then dies. He and his colleague were sponsored by a foreign power. Don leaves the dead guy by the side of the road and zooms back to the factory in his roadster, where he shows the confession to the new Government Inspector. This guy's reaction is off-kilter enough to make Don suspicious, but he returns to his work station, where he sees two mechanics with a fat wad of paper money. Acting on a hunch, Don Glory charges between them, grabs all the money, and races away. There's a fight, and he beats the two of them up pretty well, but there's a third one, who head-konks Don with a hammer, but doesn't quite knock him out. This guy grabs the money and flees the room. Don pursues him thru some large, complex, dangerous machinery, then catches him, punches him out, and grabs the stack of bills out of his pocket. Then Don crashes into a nearby administrative office, where to his great surprise, June Brent, his fiancee, is working (under an assumed name) as a typist. She's doing the same infiltration job that Johnny her brother had, essentially, and she is there to find out what happened to him. She knows the score, and tells him: the new inspector is definitely a phony, he knows where John is, and oh look there he goes running toward Don's car right now! Don jumps out thru a closed window, hits the ground running, and overhauls the fake inspector. He beats down this creep, plus two security cops who show up just then. Don carries the unconscious fake inspector to the factory manager's office, and they have a conversation. Along with confessing to everything else, the impostor tells them that they took the old inspector, John Brent, to Hullville. Soon Don Glory and June Brent are hurrying to Hullville. | Appearing13 = Featured Characters: * Supporting Characters: * June Brent, Don's fiancee Antagonists: * Hal Danton * other saboteur * fake Government Inspector * three more saboteurs Other Characters: * John Brent, June's brother * factory manager * factory security guards, 4 or more Locations: * Acme Aircraft factory Items: * Vehicles: * "Liberty Streak", Don's open-top roadster | Notes = * Betty Bates: ** Betty wears a very conservative courtroom-ready suit-dress, complete with a hat, yet she climbs in and out of townhouse windows like she was Selina Kyle. * Hercules: ** A fight between Hercules and a giant bear appeared on the cover of the previous issue, the fight itself appears here in Hit Comics #12. * Neon the Unknown: ** Otto Shickler returns; he was Neon's only recurring villain. ** Otto Shickler's aggressor nation is adjacent to Slovia. ** Otto Shickler is still alive and in power, at the end of this story. Premier Tchebitsky's whereabouts and condition are unstated. * The Old Witch: ** She straightforwardly tells the tale, and does so with no cackling, and with no puns, but also with no more personality than any other caption box. ** She might be a giant, judging by this story's last panel, in which she towers over her audience of two ordinary-looking fellows. * The Red Bee: ** Some time between issue #7 and this issue's story, Rick Raleigh's boss, District Attorney Tom Darrow has been replaced by District Attorney Hawkes. The D.A. has appeared, at least briefly, in every story, but was not addressed or mentioned by name, in issues #s 8 ~ 11. His appearance and personality have not changed at all. ** Geography problem: In , the villain (Shanghai Joe) operated a high-seas piracy racket, hijacking cargoes bound for China and selling them to Japan. It would make sense to base such a racket in a West Coast City, such as Superior City, Oregon. This issue's villain (Feodor Grotoff) claims to have dominion over all the politicians in the northeastern U.S. It would make less sense to manage these operations from the West Coast, yet apparently he does so. Fortunately, he's out of business and under arrest by page 7 of this story. * The Strange Twins: ** The main way of telling which of the twins is which, is that Doug smokes a pipe, and Rod smokes cigarettes. So the Strange Twins do some smoking in every episode of their adventures. * Also appearing in this issue of Hit Comics were: ** , by Arthur Beeman ** "Murder In the Sun" (text story), by Toni Blum | Trivia = | Recommended = | Links = * Hit Comics #12 June 1941, entire issue * [https://fourcolorshadows.blogspot.com/2015/09/the-strange-twins-alex-blum-1941.html This issue's Strange Twins story online] }}